Can Marra and her entourage of misfits save her sister from the evil king?
Princess Marra, a bone dog, a dust-wife, an outcast diplomat- knight, and a fairy godmother…
👸🏼 🦴 🐶 🗡️🧙‍♀️🧚🏻
#AuthorAMonth

1/3 the way through this book for #AuthorAMonth
Reading the book with my own bone dog.
Read Thornhedge last year with #CoverToCover Round 5 #LitsyGoesPostal that @Soubhiville set up for us in 2017!
🐶 🦴 🐶 🐔 😈 🐓

I just started using STORYGRAPH last year.
I haven‘t used it as a social platform, but maybe I should!
Here‘s my handle. 🦋📕🦋

https://app.thestorygraph.com/profile/tpixie

#storygraph

@BookishMarginalia your post reminded to pick up my hold from the library. A beautiful companion book for it is The Lost Words. This book contains some of the 50 nature- related words that were taken out of the Oxford Junior Dictionary in place of technical words. This is the author‘s and illustrator‘s beautiful protest.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/13/oxford-junior-dictionary-replaceme...

Thanks @Daisey for letting me know about this year long reading adventure about music!
I‘m listening to the audiobook on Amazon Music ( it must come with my Amazon Unlimited subscription) & listening to the music playlist on Spotify.
Wow! Classical Music 🎶 is so beautiful! 🎶🎶🎶
#AYearOfWonder

The book has 2 covers- the dust jacket has the book cover & the book itself has the cover of the book within the book!
This was one of the last books I read in 2025 for #LitsyBookclub
The book had an interesting premise.
Also: The phrase “death of the author” refers to once the author has written the book and it is out in the world, it is no longer theirs, but the readers.

I love the rabbit holes I go down. In the book they‘re talking about an art collectors home that was also an art gallery and the home itself sound beautiful with its geometrically pattern, yellow and Ochs marble floor and sweeping candle delivered marble staircase with a cast-iron railing. I googled it and found a photo of a photo of the staircase.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/art-meets-history-in-homage-to-legendary-french-je...

🏆Theo of Golden
Snuck this delightful book in just before the New Year and reached my 100 books for 2025 goal. Who knew that the last book I read this year would be in my top three favorites?!
This debut novel is remarkably touching. 💙💙💙
My other two favorites were:
🏆 The Correspondent by Virginia Evans &
🏆My Friends by Fredrick Bachman
#BestOf2025

Gabrïele did give me some nougats of knowledge I‘m thankful for. I now know more about Guillaume Apollinaire, which adds more depth to this section of the nonfiction book, The Art Spy ?️
#EuropaCollective #EuropaEditions

Two totally different genres, but same theme:

How your community & even family can try to drag you down

“Her sudden success and growing independence had upsided the balance of the family”.

#LitsyBookClub

Would love to read @ChrisBohjalian ‘s afterward!

#ReadLesMis

***The only completely unabridged paperback edition*** of Victor Hugo‘s masterpiece—a sweeping tale of love, loss, valor, & passion.
🇫🇷 Afterword by Chris Bohjalian 🇫🇷
Translated by Lee Fahnestock and Norman MacAfee
Introduction by Lee Fahnestock
Penguin Random House Signet Classics

Saw this photo of Marilyn Monroe and it reminded me of the Shakespeare and Company‘s Ulysses buddy read a few years ago

#SandCoUlysses #Ulysses

Falling into Alice E Harrow‘s world reminds me of the way I felt as a child reading books. My heart hums.
( photo from IG- my Kindle just doesn‘t give her beautiful covers justice)

Hallelujah! I‘m finally done with this book! 🥳
Since it took me months to read, it obviously was hard to finish. There were a few pearls 🦪 throughout the book that kept me going. One was mentioning the restaurant La Train Bleu @ Gare du Lyon 🚆 - in 2022 we celebrated my son‘s birthday there! lol 😝 but apparently he was the photographer hiding behind the camera! 📕 Pg 335 📕 #EuropaCollective #EuropaAdditions

Man Ray‘s photo of Marcel Duchamp‘s comet that Gabriële shaved for him page 336
#EuropaEditions #EuropaCollective

Jumping back into Eve Dallas‘ universe with @Soubhiville and #AuthorAMonth
#54!

Gabrielle Buffet, She Corrects Manners By Laughing (Gabrielle Buffet, elle corrige les moeurs en riant), 1915. Ink, watercolour, pencil on board

Met Museum of Art
Francis Picabia Part 1 & 2 1/30/2017

https://thehumblefabulist.com/2017/08/21/rediscovering-francis-picabia-moma-part...

https://thehumblefabulist.com/2017/08/23/if-you-want-to-have-clean-ideas-change-...

#EuropaCollective
#EuropaEditions

Every once in a while, a little diamond 💎 shimmers in the book. This is what is helping me finally finish the book.
Edward Haviland , son of Haviland Porcelain was mentioned.
Each year our Mom gave my two sisters and myself a Haviland ornament. We have a beautiful collection.
my husband did not get them out this year (poo poo) but here‘s a sample of them from online.
#EuropaCollective #EuropaEditions

A very interesting account of the Witchcraft Trials. The peer pressure, mass hysteria, and the lure of power those teenage girls experienced and how they convinced whole communities to believe them is amazing AND terrifying.

#ChildrensClassicRead2025

Today is the anniversary of artist Francis Picabia‘s death. Like his critics, I enjoyed his Impressionist work the best.
I do think Gabriële was his and others‘ muse.
I just still wish she had pursued her music ?
#EuropaCollective #EuropaEditions

I decided to return to this book and slog through it before the end of the year. This is the restaurant where Gabriële and Francis Picabia dined with their friends before they sailed to America. It‘s still open today! What an exotic façade!
#EuropaCollective #EuropaEditions

I really enjoyed reading this book about 2 female Dutch still life painters during Rembrandt‘s time. Did the apprentice surpass the master?
I just happened upon this book right at the end of my trip to the Netherlands - and had seen one of Maria‘s paintings at the Mauritshuis in The Hague!
Such Serendipity!
This is a Sarah Jessica Parker imprint- my 1st I may need to read more of hers! 👇

Here‘s an article about the Maple Syrup Farm & Museum that @Suet624 told us about!

#ChildrensClassicRead2025

https://www.farmanddairy.com/news/hurry-hill-maple-farm-and-museum-celebrates-lo...

A fun short novel with a ‘seasoned ‘ main character.
An 83 yo woman was resolved to live the rest of her life alone, but then she acquired a responsibility- she can‘t die now!!
A hint of Fredrik Bachman‘s style of storytelling.
I‘m listening to the audiobook from Libby as well as reading the e-book.

I‘m behind on all my buddy reads ( lol although I‘m 1/2 way thru our Dec‘s book!) I‘m starting November‘s on serial reader.
I LOVE E. Nesbit 🦋🦋🦋
#ChildrensClassicRead2025

1/2 way through this sweet story. I‘m glad their Dad is healing in the countryside 🦋 🌳 🐭 🌺
There are magic & miracles in nature 💚

Love that it‘s loosely based on the authors‘ own history.
Another touching #ChildrensClassicRead2025

Serendipity! I just saw this painting in the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, Netherlands & that same day learned there‘s an historical novel about her published by Sarah Jessica Parker‘s SPJLIT imprint!
Mary Van Oosterwyck, a 1600‘s female artist was a contemporary of Rembrandt! The Magic of the River of Travel!

A few books I‘ve read for my upcoming trip to Amsterdam. Vincent, Theo, & the Fox is an adorable adventure using his paintings as a guide to the story. When We Flew Away is a story of Anne Frank‘s life before she was hiding in the annex. It‘s a great companion book to the Diary. The Lost Van Gogh artfully sneaks facts in. Corrie ten Boom was an angel on Earth. 🇳🇱 🖼️ 🚪 📚

Great news! Mona‘s eyes is shortlisted for the 2025 Barnes & Noble Book of the Year!!
#EuropaCollective

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/2025-book-of-the-year-finalists/

I‘m back in medieval times!
Figeac, France 🇫🇷
Today my sister & I will go to a museum regarding hieroglyphics, the history of writing, & the breaking of the code of the Rosetta Stone by Champollion

How apropo!
Victor Hugo Market in Toulouse
#ReadLesMis 💙🤍❤️🇫🇷

In Toulouse with my sister! So close to Carcassonne, yet far away! Soon off to Figeac, then Béduer to a Women‘s Camp
# BooksWithSenseOfPlace

This may be my most controversial post.
I prayed to the book gods with the upmost of respect while making my Travel Les Mis book.
I don‘t want to get behind further, & just can‘t carry the full book on vacation.
This book was waiting in the wild to be used & loved.
With an X-Acto blade I cut the cover, several of the pages, & the appendix in the back. Now Les MIs can return to France, but in the beautiful countryside
#ReadLesMis

Our kind of yoga! 😅😂😜 #BookYoga

@TheBookHippie what a coinkydink
Sunflowers 🌻 came up in my reading today. Regarding the Fibonacci Sequence- sunflowers always have 89 seeds!

Plugging along!
July 23 pg 671
The title of the book appears.
“les misérables - the wretched“
That always jumps out at me when I read!
#ReadLesMis

Interesting- in the same day I came upon the same French phrase!
“Entre chien et loup “ - literally between dog and wolf- it means evening.
I‘m reading the Languedoc Trilogy in advance to my trip to SE France ?? (Toulouse, Figeac, & Béduer) since the books are based in that area & Carcassonne.
This phrase is in Book 2- Sepulchre
I‘m lucky to travel, but these travels will make me even further behind on #ReadLesMis

My daughter sent me this photo of her six month old this morning.
“You have to start them young!”
#LittleLitten
#Hazel 🩷🩷🩷

I‘m still terribly behind, but at least I‘m in July and not June.
Love this quote about Monsieur Mabeuf.
“Like everyone else, he had his own - ist ending. … He was neither a royalist, a Bonapartist…..
- he was a book-specialist!
💙🤍❤️
#ReadLesMis

This is an adorable, smart read for older grade schoolers & MS. It‘s about 3 orphaned Pied Piper/ evacuate siblings during World War II.
One of them is named Edmund, as a nod to CS Lewis‘ Narnia evacuee children.
They are hoping to find their forever home in the countryside.

Here‘s a little French History timeline from Khan Academy I just found

https://youtu.be/I4iwhvDhvKE?si=nzP_0JxezBg31XOT

#ReadLesMis

At the Playground/Splash Park 💦 with my 2 oldest grandkids & starting my #LitsyBookclub book.

Enjoying the last days of summer break!

My brain just can‘t concentrate on a book right now. I did just finish alchemy of flowers, which was pretty good but not amazing. I think I‘m going to try Annabelle Monagan‘s it‘s a love story.
I‘ve enjoyed her other romcoms and enjoy her sense of humor.

I don‘t remember these from my childhood, but Beverly Cleary understands kids of all ages #AuthorAMonth #BeverlyClearly

Enjoying this children‘s chapter book about evacuees from England‘s Pied Piper Operation ( such a terrible name!)
Instead of going shopping for innings, Edmund fibs and says they have a school assignment to go to the library!! His sister Anna loves to read.
it‘s also interesting that Edmond is the name of this mischievous evacuee- he carries the same name of the mischievous evacuee Edmund from the Chronicles of Narnia

Yay! I won a copy of #EuropaEditions Mona‘s Eyes by Thomas Schlesser!! There are fold out pages of the artwork mentioned in the book. I can‘t wait until it arrives!!
#EuropaCollective

Illustration of the robbery of Société Générale Bank in Chantilly on 25 March 1912

Picking this book up again. Sad this #EuropaEditions isn‘t as good as I hoped

Interesting trivia about the world‘s 1st motorized bank robberies - by the Bonnet Gang

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonnot_Gang

#EuropaCollective

Such a sweet book!
I loved listening to Julie Andrew‘s read her book. She‘s so comforting!
(It‘s on YouTube in 4 parts)

Thanks @TheBookHippie
#ChildrensClassicRead2025
#DogsOfLitsy

Reading & enjoying Karen White‘s new novel. I love the bird info at the beginning of each chapter. KW has developed a love of birds after her husband gave her a bird feeder. 😂 now she has 15!
This book is also inspired by the recent deaths of both her parents, at least one of whom had rapidly declining dementia.
Depicted here is a Brown- Headed Cowbird.
🩷 🐦 🧠🩷

Finished this book for #Litsybookclub. It‘s about how a current day single mother might navigate her new life. My older sister couldn‘t finish it- she couldn‘t relate to it. I maybe related more since my single mom daughter of 5 yo twins lives with us. I also enjoyed Elle Fanning narrating it. Can‘t wait to discuss with Bookclub